Rwanda champions set to benefit on CAF’s increase in prize money

With the increased prize money of the CAF inter-club competitions, both APR FC and Rayon Sports stand to leap big should they overcome the two qualifying rounds to reach the Total CAF Champions League and Total CAF Confederation Cup group phases.

The announcement in the increase of prize money came recently after the French oil-gas company Total signed an eight-year sponsorship deal with CAF reportedly worth more than $1bn (915 million euros).

In the new club competitions format, winners of both the preliminary round and round of 16 will after drawing of lots, be placed into four groups of four teams each in both Champions League and Confederation Cup competitions.

After a round-robin of matches (home and away), the first two of each group will qualify for the quarter-finals, which opens a new phase of knockout matches till the final.

The group stage will consist of 4 groups of 4 teams with the clubs which will finish top of each group granted passage to host the second leg of the quarterfinals.

The clubs which will finish third and fourth in the group will each be given $275, 000 in prize money.

Meanwhile, there was also increase in prize money in other CAF tournaments namely Total Africa Cup of Nations for the next two editions of 2017 and 2019; Total African Nations Championships, Total U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, Total U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, Total Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, Total U-23 Africa Cup of Nations and Total CAF Super Cup all for a period between 2017 to 2020.

Winners of the biennial Africa Cup of Nations will receive $4m, up from the $1.5m pocketed by 2015 champions the Ivory Coast.

CAF Champions League title-holders are going to collect $2.5m — $1m more than South African club Mamelodi Sundowns received last month.